QUICK FACTS: DID JESUS REALLY SAY “I AM ALPHA AND OMEGA” IN REVELATION 1:11?
PART ONE — WHAT DO THE OLDEST MANUSCRIPTS SAY?
Research by Simon Brown
There is a surprisingly simple textual problem in Revelation 1:11 that every Christian Bible student should know about.
For centuries, readers of the King James Version have read words that appear to have Jesus saying:
“I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last…”
— Revelation 1:11, KJV
This verse has therefore sometimes been used as evidence that Jesus personally declared Himself to be “the Alpha and Omega.”
As the screenshot reproduced in this article demonstrates, some Trinitarian teachers and websites have specifically included Revelation 1:11 among the verses they use to support that claim.
But there is a major problem:
The words “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last” are absent from important early Greek manuscript witnesses.
That is why these words disappear completely from the Berean Literal Bible and many other modern translations.
So what happened?
Let us look at the Quick Facts.
QUICK FACT 1 — WHAT DOES THE KING JAMES VERSION SAY?
The King James Version reads:
“Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book…”
— Revelation 1:11, KJV
Notice those opening words:
“I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.”
If these words were part of the original text of Revelation, they would obviously be important.
But now compare the same verse in the Berean Literal Bible:
“Saying, ‘What you see, write in a book and send to the seven churches: to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.’”
— Revelation 1:11, BLB
Something very important is missing.
The BLB does not say:
“I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.”
It simply begins:
“What you see, write in a book…”
Why such a dramatic difference?
QUICK FACT 2 — THE DIFFERENCE COMES FROM THE GREEK TEXTUAL EVIDENCE
This is not simply a case of modern translators deciding that they did not like the words.
The longer reading found in the KJV belongs to a later Greek textual tradition.
The clause:
“I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last”
is absent from important early Greek manuscript witnesses and consequently does not appear in the standard critical Greek text followed by many modern Bible translations.
That is why translations such as the Berean Literal Bible, NIV, ESV and NASB do not contain these words in Revelation 1:11.
So the important question is not:
Which English Bible do I personally prefer?
The important question is:
What did the earliest recoverable Greek text of Revelation 1:11 actually say?
According to modern critical textual scholarship, the evidence strongly supports the shorter reading:
“What you see, write in a book…”
without:
“I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.”
QUICK FACT 3 — WE ARE NOT ASKING YOU TO SIMPLY TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT
This is why the screenshots reproduced in this article are important.
Readers can examine the evidence for themselves.
As shown in the screenshot from the Trinitarian website GotQuestions, their article states:
“Jesus proclaimed Himself to be the ‘Alpha and Omega’ in Revelation 1:8, 11; 21:6; and 22:13.”
Notice particularly:
Revelation 1:11.
It is specifically included as evidence that Jesus proclaimed Himself “the Alpha and Omega.”
But now compare that statement with what recognised Bible commentaries themselves say about the text of Revelation 1:11.
QUICK FACT 4 — EVEN TRINITARIAN BIBLE COMMENTARIES ACKNOWLEDGE THE TEXTUAL PROBLEM
This is not a textual issue invented by people who reject the Trinity.
It has long been recognised by mainstream biblical commentators, including Trinitarian scholars.
The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary states concerning Revelation 1:11:
“The oldest manuscripts all omit this clause.”
What clause?
The very words:
“I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges likewise describes the words “I am … the last” in this location as:
“Not genuine in this place.”
That is extremely important.
On one side, we have Revelation 1:11 being presented as evidence that Jesus proclaimed Himself “the Alpha and Omega.”
On the other side, textual scholarship acknowledges that the very words needed to make that argument are absent from important early manuscript evidence.
